Conservationists seek ban on ‘cyanide bombs’ in national forests
Ryan Knappenberger
WASHINGTON (CN) — A environmental coalition urged the U.S. Forest Service to ban the use of so-called cyanide bombs in national forests on Wednesday, arguing that the traps continue to inhumanely kill endangered animals and humans.
The petition comes nearly a year after the Bureau of Land Management issued a ban in November 2023, also at the behest of the environmental coalition headed by the Center for Biological Diversity and Predator Defense along with more than 60 other conservation groups.
The M-44 devices, spring-loaded ejectors are staked in the ground at surface level with a sodium cyanide capsule loaded, and can be baited to attract predators, like coyotes and certain fox species.
When triggered, the spring ejects a lethal dose of cyanide into the biting animal’s mouth, killing the animal within one to five minutes.
In a statement announcing the petition, Brooks Fahy, executive director of Predator Defense said that the ban is necessary to bring an end to decades of wrongful human and wildlife deaths.
“M-44s are indiscriminate devices that can never be used safely,” Fahy said. “I’ve worked with victims of M-44s for over 30 years and know firsthand that the federal government has no justification for attempting to ‘manage’ native predators with a device that kills and poisons endangered species, wildlife, dogs and humans — especially on our shared public forest lands.”
According to the conservationists, the agency has continued authorizing the device’s use despite public opposition but has not been used on Forest Service lands since 2021, per an April letter from Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack to Democratic Representative Jared Huffman.
A Forest Service spokesperson confirmed that Vilsack’s statement remains accurate but did not comment further on the petition.
With a ban in place, the agency would be unable to resume authorizing use of the device without public involvement, the conservationists argued.
In their petition, the coalition cited recent data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service which found that approximately 6,000 to 7,500 animals have been killed annually by M-44s since 2015. In 2023 alone, the devices have been used to intentionally kill 6,148 coyotes, 238 gray foxes and 35 red foxes. There were also 156 animals killed unintentionally.
Since 1978, there have been eight recorded instances of endangered wildlife being killed by cyanide bombs, including grizzly bears, endangered wolves and California condors. That count does not include other federally protected animals such as gray wolves and bald eagles, that have been killed by the devices.
The devices have also injured and even killed humans, with 42 people being harmed between 1984 and 2015 according to government data. While most incidents only end in injury, one Utah man who was exposed to a cyanide bomb in 2003 suffered such lasting impacts that the device was listed as a contributing factor on his 2018 death certificate.
Absent any federal action, states have taken it upon themselves to curb the use of devices. Oregon outright banned their use in 2020, while court-ordered restrictions have taken effect in Colorado, Wyoming and Idaho.
Pesticide regulators in Arizona enacted rules that limited the devices' use.
The devices remain available in states like Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Texas. According to Wildlife Services data, Texas has the highest usage, with nearly 50% of M-44s in 2017.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in Congress — led by Huffman and fellow Democrats Steve Cohen and Jeff Merkley — introduced legislation last summer that would ban the use of M-44s on public lands. The legislation, known as Canyon’s Law after Canyon Mansfield, was referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works, but has made little progress since.
Mansfield, who was 14 years old at the time, set the device off thinking it was a sprinkler, which launched a cloud of sodium cyanide into his left eye and killed Kasey, his golden retriever. He narrowly survived the accident, likely due to the direction of the wind at the time.
Collette Adkins, carnivore conservation program director at the Center for Biological Diversity said in the statement that the Forest Service needs to take a stand against the deadly devices.
“The Forest Service needs to step up with a ban so that we all can safely step in our national forests,” Adkins said. “I just can’t understand why the Forest Service won’t follow the lead of other land-management agencies that rightfully recognized how dangerous cyanide bombs are to wildlife, people and their pets.”